- Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
- Joint showcases at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona connect booths of both companies
- Market leaders continue their strategic partnership
Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom announced today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to continue to accelerate the strategic partnership between the two companies. The two market leaders of Germany and South Korea face the challenges of rapid technological innovation in the telecommunications sector and wish to unlock new growth opportunities by building on each other’s strengths and knowhow.
Under the terms of the MoU, Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom will seek technological partnership opportunities in LTE and 5G networks, OTT media, Security, and Cloud industry. Both companies agreed to evaluate potential options to optimize their partnership, including joint participation in development, marketing, investment, and the establishment of a joint venture entity.
“We look forward to continuing our successful collaboration with SK Telecom,” said Tim Höttges, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Telekom. “The expansion of the partnership will help both companies strengthen our global technology leadership and offer 5G and other innovative services to our customers.”
“Through close cooperation with Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom will seek new business opportunities in the European markets for network, media and security technologies,” said Park Jung-ho, CEO and President of SK Telecom. “Going forward, SK Telecom will continue to strengthen partnerships with companies of both home and abroad to accelerate the 5G ecosystem.”
As strategic partners, Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom have enjoyed multiple success cases of collaborations, including investment into each other’s subordinate technology companies IDQuantique of Switzerland and MobiledgeX of the US in 2018.
At MWC Barcelona, Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom demonstrate their already fruitful collaboration. Two joint showcases connect the booths of both companies in hall 3. One shows a new digital and mobile ID business based on blockchain technology, the other possibilities of Virtual Reality in the 5G era.
At the Deutsche Telekom booth and at the SK Telecom booth, visitors can create their own personal IDs based on blockchain technology. The Blockchain Mobile ID allows users to experience the benefits of self-sovereign identities and better utilize and protect their own personal data: they can choose which data to share and with whom, scan QR codes, download and share booth documents while collecting virtual tokens that can be redeemed for prizes. The personal IDs work identically at the booths of both partners. The concept of blockchain identity is based on a cryptographic secure exchange of information, which allows the individuals to prove their digital identity. The exchange is not processed, nor does it require any authorization from a formal institution. At MWC 2019, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs also signed an additional MoU with SK Telecom to jointly develop and commercialize blockchain-based mobile ID.
SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom also both set up a ‘Social VR Experience Zone’ at their booths to jointly demonstrate ‘Social VR.’ At the zone, visitors are able to watch a soccer game together in the same virtual space while chatting with each other and sharing comments about the game – no matter at which booth they are actually located. The two companies invite visitors to dive into a deeper level of the virtual reality world of the 5G era by enabling them to experience more intuitive media and communications beyond the limitations of location and language.
Visit Deutsche Telekom’s booth in hall 3 at MWC in Barcelona from February 25 to 28 to experience our products and services live.
About Deutsche Telekom: Deutsche Telekom at a glance
